Now we arrive at the fourth installment of our "Why Enterprise VR Failed" novella. And if you were hoping this would be the triumphant turning point—where VR gets its act together, management and employees are happy, and we all ride off into the immersive sunset like heroes of the Metaverse… yeah, no. 

This is the part where we teleport you to the boss level of dysfunction: Enterprise IT.

Episode 3 of our series on "Why Enterprise VR Failed" pokes fun at the underbelly of VR software development tools to determine if software is the true villain of our story or was it wildly misaligned teams and a tech industry that promised a holodeck and delivered us Microsoft MESH? 

From the Unity vs. Unreal holy war to bloated dev teams that needed more roles than a James Cameron movie, it was clear we had entered Crazy Town. 

And just when IT finally got involved? Things got worse.

Once upon a time—okay, five years ago—enterprise VR looked like the next corporate messiah. Training, collaboration, simulations… the future was here, and it had headsets. Unfortunately, so did the IT audit team. What started with tethered headset monstrosities that required a gaming PC the size of a dishwasher evolved into standalone devices like the Oculus Quest—cheaper, wireless, and just good enough to get everyone irrationally excited. Enter Oculus for Business, where Facebook slapped a new sticker on a consumer headset, charged double, and called it “enterprise-grade.” Spoiler: it wasn’t.

While enterprises stuffed Quests into training rooms like Halloween candy, IT departments screamed into the void. No security. No management. No way past the firewall. Then in true tech-industry fashion, Meta quietly lit the whole thing on fire, retired the platform, and offered a replacement that wouldn’t ship for two years. HTC fumbled, Pico got bought by TikTok’s parents, and HP and Lenovo noped out entirely. And so, enterprise VR found itself in a coma—propped up by buzzwords, abandoned hardware, and Zuck’s metaverse pipe dream, complete with legless avatars floating in empty virtual boardrooms. RIP, Enterprise VR. We hardly patched ye.

Welcome to Episode 1 of Why Enterprise VR Failed, where we unpack the beautiful dumpster fire that was Enterprise Virtual Reality. For decades, tech bros, consultants, and wide-eyed futurists pitched VR as the cure for corporate dysfunction—training would be revolutionized, meetings would be tolerable, and Gary from accounting would suddenly become a combat medic via headset. Spoiler alert: most of that didn’t happen. Instead, companies bought into the hype like it was a 90s infomercial—“But wait, there’s more!”—only to end up with a pile of dusty headsets, one awkward avatar meeting, and an HR complaint involving inappropriate avatars. 

Episode 1 dives into the gap between the hype and the reality of VR’s biggest promises—spoiler: it mostly lives in the “technically true but also completely impractical” category. Yes, VR can boost learning and cut travel costs, but only if you ignore the budget, the user experience, and that tiny issue where no one actually wants to wear a headset for four hours. So before we strap in for Episode 2’s consumer-tech horror show, let’s relive the golden age of promises—when every executive thought VR would save the company, and none of them actually used it.

The Why Enterprise VR Failed series is a no-holds-barred deep dive into why Virtual Reality, once hailed as the messiah of corporate training and collaboration, tripped over its own headset and is now hiding in the broom closet. Host Daniel Eckert—recovering  technology consultant and Enterprise VR veteran—takes you on a snark-filled tour of broken promises, clunky goggles, and the Metaverse Industrial Complex.

These not word-for-word audio casts are very similar to the written essays, but now in an audio format so you can listen to it instead of reading like a caveman.

This is the introduction to seven sarcastic episodes helping you understand Why VR Failed in the enterprise. Press play, and "Engage."